Hi, I'm new to the forums, but have a question in regards to posting a counter in the BW Dakrai article (http://www.smogon.com/bw/pokemon/darkrai). I have been playing Ubers on Pokemon Showdown for a decent time, and it seems as if Speed-Boost Blaziken is a great counter. A single high jump kick puts the nail in Darkrai's coffin and if speed is an issue, the Blaziken simply needs to protect for one turn to get the boost it needs. If dark void has been used and sleep clause activated, it becomes even easier for Blaiziken to revenge kill Darkrai. A speed boost may not even be needed!

Again, I was just wondering if there's anyway Blaizken could be put in the checks and counters for Darkrai.

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Blaziken does not counter Darkrai at all. As you switch in, you must use Protect to actually outspeed Darkrai. By this turn, Darkrai can get a Substitute up and put you asleep with Dark Void (assuming Sleep Clause isn't active). Not to mention that Blaziken takes a MASSIVE damage from LO Focus Blast: 77.81 - 91.72%. Add in Stealth Rock, recoil, Blaziken's LO, and often Spikes, and Blaziken is dead.

However, Blaziken indeed is a nice check, as it is capable of outspeeding Darkrai with a single Speed Boost and can OHKO it with its moves. I wouldn't rely on it, but it's definitely a check.

I want to build a team for it. It should have the main sweeper role thanks to its high speed, power and perfect couverage

Any suggestions in which team he does fit? (Sandstorm teams, sun, rain... etc.) And which pokemon are have good synergy with it?

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Definitely go with Recover last slot; Arceus needs that move to get the HP lost when trying to get Calm Mind boosts. I think that Eleceus would fit best on rain teams, as those allow Him to unleash full accuracy STAB Thunders, which can turn into an extremely deadly weapon if boosted. Kyogre can also drown Tyranitar and Ground Arceus, that can easily stop this set. You need something to beat Chansey, Blissey, and Latias, as the pink blobs can easily poison you and Latias's Soul Dew grants her amazing bulk. Genesect can easily eliminate Latias with +1 U-turn, and Terrakion, Zekrom, Rayquaza, and Kyurem-B can wreck the pink blobs with their STABs. If you want to go double-weather, Tyranitar can eliminate all 3 on its own; if you do go this way, keep Thunderbolt.

You need something to beat Chansey, Blissey, and Latias, as the pink blobs can easily poison you and Latias's Soul Dew grants her amazing bulk. Genesect can easily eliminate Latias with +1 U-turn, and Terrakion, Zekrom, Rayquaza, and Kyurem-B can wreck the pink blobs with their STABs. If you want to go double-weather, Tyranitar can eliminate all 3 on its own; if you do go this way, keep Thunderbolt.

I'm using a core of Arceus-Fighting and Scarf Zekrom (w/ Scarf Kyogre, Deoxys-S, Scarf Palkia, Giratina-O), but goddamn Ho-oh and RestTalk Giratina are a pain in the ass. Just in general, what are good lures for them?

You can try running MixKrom, since you already have 2 scarfers. 3 scarfers is quite overkill. MixKrom with Expert Belt is a great lure, since everybody will expect a choice item on Zekrom when there's no Life Orb recoil. It can solve both your problems with Bolt Strike/Draco Meteor

This may have already been asked, but how does one catch a Therian Forme genie in the dream radar with a good nature? My Tornadus is cruddy.

I actually think that's his nature: "Cruddy".

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The nature is determined when you select the 3DS option from the Unova Link menu in BW2. Because the Pokemon are transferred directly to your PC storage, there is no way to soft-reset for natures or IVs. So, it then follows that there is also no way to influence the nature.

If you want good Pokemon from the DR, you're either going to have to get extremely lucky or RNG them (which at this point is only possible for people with Mac computers).

I'm using a core of Arceus-Fighting and Scarf Zekrom (w/ Scarf Kyogre, Deoxys-S, Scarf Palkia, Giratina-O), but goddamn Ho-oh and RestTalk Giratina are a pain in the ass. Just in general, what are good lures for them?

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An easy fix is running Resttalk Ogre; this alleviates your Ho-Oh problem a bit and it can be a good status absorber if you can keep hazards off the field.

Hey, I'm using a sun team, and I am starting to get annoyed by Kyogre. I run scarfkia to stop kyogre, but that only really works against fellow scarfkyogres.T-wave Kyogres are the worst. What would I run to stop most forms of kyogre?

Hey, I'm using a sun team, and I am starting to get annoyed by Kyogre. I run scarfkia to stop kyogre, but that only really works against fellow scarfkyogres.T-wave Kyogres are the worst. What would I run to stop most forms of kyogre?

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Well ScarfKia does stop most choiced Kyogres but for non-choiced forms, Ferrothorn works pretty well, as Leech Seed prevents Kyogre from spamming Water Spout and in conjunction with Toxic, keeps Kyogre from setting up too much with Calm Mind (barring RestTalk versions). Bulk Up Dialga works too I suppose, but I've never used it for countering Kyogre. GrassCeus can tank everything but boosted Ice Beams I think, and if you really want a dedicated Kyogre counter, use Gastrodon, but keep in mind that it's total crap outside this one niche role. If you just hate the Thunder Wave run RestTalk on someone or Lum Berry.

Hey, I'm using a sun team, and I am starting to get annoyed by Kyogre. I run scarfkia to stop kyogre, but that only really works against fellow scarfkyogres.T-wave Kyogres are the worst. What would I run to stop most forms of kyogre?

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In my experience with Kyogre, running something that can paralyze Kyogre itself will greatly help stop it in its tracks, so pokemon like Lugia will slow it down to a halt. Grasseus can also do this, however it has the benefit of having STAB grass attacks and refresh in the case it becomes paralyzed itself. Adding to that, most kyogre will not come in on ekiller in the fear of taking major damage or getting outright KO'd by a boosted Espeed, or anything that can outspeed and has a strong physical attack.

Funny thing i saw once was a guy using a brave 0IV Groudon paired with Wobbuffet so it would never be able to land a really threatening attack, but of course this failed sometimes as anyone who put the pieces together would simply switch out upon realizing they have no rain.

For my question, some of you would know that Deoxys is getting Nasty Plot from an event soon and i want to try it on Speed forme. Would it be more beneficial to just run max speed on Timid with a Life Orb, or can I afford some speed EVs and invest in bulk with an Expert Belt?

rotartsinimdA

I'm having difficulty creating a Latias set for an offensive team that isn't terribly reliant on a particular weather. Any suggestions?

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Well if you want Latias > Latios on an offensive team that's perfectly up to you I guess, but generally Latios will perform better. Latios has the ability to OHKO Scizor and Genesect with Surf (although this is considering rain is up and you don't want to rely on weather_.

It's obviously pretty difficult since Latias is often used on weather reliant teams, therefore Grass Know + HP Fire would be used together and generally Surf + Thunder. I really do like Psyshock though. It's coverage is pretty average but it will allow you to do decent damage to Ho-oh if the sun is up, and it's good for beating up Blissey / Chansey. For the spread you can drop down to 96 or 52 EV's in HP to add more into attack, but again it would just make Latios seem like the better choice if you choose to do so.

For the Mixed Dancer Rayquaza, what is the general preference for the last slot? Fire Blast hits a few more key Pokemon super-effectively (Ferrothorn, Forretress, Scizor, and Skarmory would otherwise take neutral damage or resist this set), but I'm not sure about the synergy with the -2 SpAtk drop from Draco Meteor. The argument for using Earthquake is that its power is boosted by Dragon Dance and that it has comparable coverage to Fire Blast. It is also effective against Dialga and especially against Heatran, who would take neutral or resist the Fire Blast set.

Also, what is the main reason Fire Blast is the recommended Fire move for this set instead of Overheat or even V-create? Is it because having another -2 SpAtk drop move would be too much in the case of Overheat and that V-create's Speed drop counters the benefit of Dragon Dance? Does using any of the other two guarantee any particular kills that Fire Blast would not be able to get?

For the Mixed Dancer Rayquaza, what is the general preference for the last slot? Fire Blast hits a few more key Pokemon super-effectively (Ferrothorn, Forretress, Scizor, and Skarmory would otherwise take neutral damage or resist this set), but I'm not sure about the synergy with the -2 SpAtk drop from Draco Meteor. The argument for using Earthquake is that its power is boosted by Dragon Dance and that it has comparable coverage to Fire Blast. It is also effective against Dialga and especially against Heatran, who would take neutral or resist the Fire Blast set.

Also, what is the main reason Fire Blast is the recommended Fire move for this set instead of Overheat or even V-create? Is it because having another -2 SpAtk drop move would be too much in the case of Overheat and that V-create's Speed drop counters the benefit of Dragon Dance? Does using any of the other two guarantee any particular kills that Fire Blast would not be able to get?

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Fire Blast is generally preferred, as Ferrothorn and Forretress are prominent threats. Draco Meteor is not a move you go about spamming on that set; it's used with careful timing to remove normal answers to the Dragon Dance set (for example, Dragon Dancing as a Groudon switches in, then surprising it for an OHKO with Draco Meteor). You're not always going to have to deal with the -2 SpA, and even with it Fire Blast still does loads of damage to Ferrothorn and Forretress.

Overheat simply isn't worth the damage output. It actively works against the niche of your set; you won't be OHKOing much with a -2 Draco Meteor (whereas you could conversely still do some severe damage to specific targets with a -2 Fire Blast). V-create isn't actually that bad, but it inherently undoes your efforts at Dragon Dancing. It's fine on a mix set, but is generally too counterproductive to run on Dragon Dance.

For the Mixed Dancer Rayquaza, what is the general preference for the last slot? Fire Blast hits a few more key Pokemon super-effectively (Ferrothorn, Forretress, Scizor, and Skarmory would otherwise take neutral damage or resist this set), but I'm not sure about the synergy with the -2 SpAtk drop from Draco Meteor. The argument for using Earthquake is that its power is boosted by Dragon Dance and that it has comparable coverage to Fire Blast. It is also effective against Dialga and especially against Heatran, who would take neutral or resist the Fire Blast set.

Also, what is the main reason Fire Blast is the recommended Fire move for this set instead of Overheat or even V-create? Is it because having another -2 SpAtk drop move would be too much in the case of Overheat and that V-create's Speed drop counters the benefit of Dragon Dance? Does using any of the other two guarantee any particular kills that Fire Blast would not be able to get?

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Fire Blast actually lets Rayquaza touch Skarmory who otherwise walls you to no end. Overheat's power boost over Fire Blast is barely noticable, it doesn't gurantee any specific kills that Fire Blast doesn't get, and when you have Draco Meteor to nuke stuff (a special counterpart to Overheat that Rayquaza gets STAB to) I'm not sure why you'd want to use it.

As for V-Create, it is HIGHLY NOT RECCOMENDED YOU USE IT on any Dragon Dance set :P. You are correct when you say the speed drops neuter the benefit of Dragon Dance. If you really wanna use V-Create go use the Swords Dance set which has ExtremeSpeed to help compensate for the Speed boost. The main idea with Dragon Dance is to sweep the team thanks to it, V-Create a move that provides overwhelming power, (which is practically unimportant anyway unless your going against a max HP max Defense Grass or Steel Arceus), removes the chance you have to sweep which almost destroys the purpose of using it (if what I said makes any sense X_X)

I hope I was able to help.

fat MakaiMai said:

I'm having difficulty creating a Latias set for an offensive team that isn't terribly reliant on a particular weather. Any suggestions?

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Well if you want Latias > Latios on an offensive team that's perfectly up to you I guess, but generally Latios will perform better. Latios has the ability to OHKO Scizor and Genesect with Surf (although this is considering rain is up and you don't want to rely on weather_.

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Keep in mind that Latias can also switch into Specs Kyogre when Latios cannot.